article · Frontiers in Pharmacology
Climate change and human activities increasingly threaten plant biodiversity and the commercial supply of plant-based products. Factors such as changing environmental conditions, habitat destruction, and excessive wild harvesting reduce plant population survival, growth, and reproduction. Consequently, both the volume and the medicinal quality of raw plant materials delivered to the pharmaceutical sector face significant decline. Existing knowledge on how to mitigate these risks for vulnerable species remains insufficient. To counter these challenges, a sustainability framework has been developed to analyse species vulnerability and direct preservation measures. The model was evaluated across seven economically valuable medicinal species from different global regions, including Aquilaria malaccensis, Boswellia sacra, and Warburgia salutaris. By focusing on sustainable resource use and conservation, the framework aims to protect high-value medicinal flora from overexploitation and environmental shifts, while remaining adaptable to other endangered plant varieties.
Rising global demand for natural medicines coincides with environmental changes that threaten the survival of wild and cultivated medicinal plants. Losing these species diminishes biodiversity and undermines the production of vital therapeutic treatments. Developing robust conservation frameworks ensures that pharmaceutical industries can maintain dependable supplies of high-quality botanicals without driving vulnerable species to extinction.
The framework supports the phytopharmaceutical and herbal medicine industries by identifying vulnerabilities in raw material supply chains. It enables industry stakeholders, agricultural managers, and conservation bodies to implement sustainable harvesting and cultivation strategies. This is early-stage research focused on planning and risk assessment across seven commercially relevant plant species, rather than a direct commercial product, providing a structured approach to secure future botanical inputs.
AI-generated from the published abstract. Always read the original work before citing.
Climate change and human activities severely impact the viability of plants and ecosystems, threatening the environment, biodiversity, and the sustainable development of plant-based products. Biotic and abiotic (ecosystem) determinants affect species distribution and long-term survival, which in turn influence the quality of plants used as herbal medicines and other high-value products. In recent decades, diverse anthropogenic impacts have significantly affected these quality aspects. Climate change, excessive plant exploitation, habitat loss, species vulnerability, and other factors have adversely affected the growth, reproduction, and adaptation of species populations, as well as the quality and volume of primary plant materials supplied to pharmaceutical markets. Despite these growing challenges, there is limited knowledge of potential strategies to prevent or mitigate these impacts, particularly for vulnerable species collected from the wild or harvested from traditional production systems. Hence, effective strategies for preserving and increasing plant populations are urgently needed. In this study, we propose a new framework including the main sustainability factors to better understand and address the vulnerability of a species, hence mitigate the impact of climate change. We assess the applicability of our proposed framework via seven case studies of vulnerable species (i.e., <i>Aquilaria malaccensis</i> Lam., <i>Boswellia sacra</i> Flück., <i>Crocus sativus</i> L., <i>Panax quinquefolius</i> L., <i>Pilocarpus microphyllus</i> Stapf ex Wardlew., <i>Rhodiola rosea</i> L., and <i>Warburgia salutaris</i> (G.Bertol.) Chiov.) from main biogeographic realms, all widely used as medicinal plants. These species present various challenges related to the sustainability of their use, impacting their current and future status locally and globally. Their economic importance, combined with rising demands and specific risks of overexploitation, are also key factors considered here. The suggested framework for the sustainability of medicinal and other high-value plant-based products in the phytopharmaceutical industry emphasises strategies that promote conservation and sustainable resource use. It can also be adapted for other vulnerable species requiring urgent attention.
This page summarises published work. The authoritative version sits with the publisher.
DOI: 10.3389/fphar.2024.1496792
Is something wrong with this record? Report it or request removal.
Discussion
Have you built on this work, tried to replicate it, or seen it applied in practice? Share what you know. Verified researchers and MARATTO™ domain experts can open a discussion, and any member can reply. Contributions are reviewed before they appear.
No discussion yet. Open the first thread.
New to MARATTO™? Create a free account.
